An update on a long week...

Well, today is Sunday, and we have hit the two week mark! Only 7 weeks left!

This past week was indeed both busy and a lot of work. After our day of transects on Friday, we had a rather comically disastrous stats workshop on Saturday. Bier and I tried to explain principle components analysis to the class, and they were definitely really lost. I can't believe you don't need to take biostats to graduate with a biology degree from Berkeley! We did however create a few running jokes, and they were really pleased to acquire one of my favorite expressions: massaging the data. There will certainly be much data massage in the coming weeks.

Saturday night was really fun; we had dinner (delicious curried shrimp!) and many drinks with Pat and Jere up at their bungalows. We heard many good stories and shared a lot of laughs. Unfortunately, the whole affair put me out of commission for much of our Sunday day off. Alas.

Monday we fired right back up with things. We had a few office hours and in the afternoon the students all presented their research ideas. Certainly a diversity of interests! It was pretty hilarious that very few students picked up on our millions of project ideas we'd been throwing out all week. Oh well, a scientist always has more ideas than they have time to pursue!

The rest of the week was a bit of a blur. I had some office hours Tuesday to help out students, and Wednesday I was the grocery driver, and also hosted some more office hours. Thursday I went with a group to hike the 3 coconuts trail again and explore their project ideas. My little arthropod clutch was very enthusiastic, which was encouraging. I would definitely be keen as them to do behaviour work here, since there are not that many mosquitoes at all!

Friday was somewhat relaxed, but there was the first of what I really hope is not a trio, just a duo, of injuries. Poor ole Roxanne fell off her bike and smashed up her knee pretty good. I spent most of the afternoon driving her around first to the local doctor, and then to the rural 'hospital' to get her wound cleaned and stitched up. The pharmacy bill was interesting (they wrote a prescription for gauze and bandages)! Her biggest disappointment was the advice to stay out of the water for two weeks, so hopefully she heals fine and gets back out to snorkeling soon.

Yesterday (Saturday) I spent a lovely morning snorkeling with Jenny. I took a million pictures, and will have to upload them in a separate post. Such cool things! We were over by the Hilton, and we oggled the accommodations there. Over-water bungalows would be super cool to stay in!

Saturday at 5 pm we enjoyed a cocktail party up at Jere's bungalow and the students made some great food. Salad, stuffed peppers, warm brie, bruschetta, and grilled pineapple with chocolate. Ridiculous! This is certainly a theme so far with the students- elaborate dinners. These kids sure know how to cook! I have probably already mentioned this before. So far we've had pineapple fried rice, home made pad-thai, baked pineapple and coconut pie (homemade crust!), and french toast with pineapple sauce with the students. Oh, did I mention they are obsessed with pineapple?!

Everyone had a pretty good evening with the professors, and I managed to migrate us out of there by 8:30 or 9. The party continued at the fare potee (hut of gathering in Tahitian) where we danced on the sandy floor in our barefeet. Bier and I bonded over how we aren't up to date with the modern dance music. I need to get out to a club sometime to update my music know-how.

Some of the students got excited and jumped off the dock in the dark, and thus happened the second (of the hopefully duo) of class injuries. I will certainly have to get some pictures from a student to post.

Poor ole Manu got stuck by a sea urchin in her foot. She had more than 30 spines stuck in her. The students got her foot into hot water pretty fast, which was good, and she was super calm about the whole situation. I am not sure how I got elected (I probably volunteered) but I pulled those damn things out of her foot one by one very carefully. You can't use tweezers because the spines are hollow and fragile, so I had to grab them with my hand and pull firmly but gently. The students made a 'Diadema rap' and one of the lines was 'urchin spines and nematocysts, good thing we've got an entomologist!'

Today has been a pretty stressful day of looking over student project proposals. It is quite evident some of them are not taking this class very seriously, but moreso very evident that the undergraduate Berkeley curriculum SUCKS. I won't say more about that to avoid going into too much of a rant. Until next time (look out soon for awesome snorkeling pictures!)

Doctor/mom Virginia!